


Thirty-Two Minutes

by ManicRavingsofaLunatic



Series: Immortal Husbands Collection [2]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Dismemberment/Extreme trauma, Feral Nicky, Graphic Description of Injury, Historical Inaccuracy, Hurt Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Immortal Husbands Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, M/M, Possible Psychotic Break, Temporary Character Death, Vietnam War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:49:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25806889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ManicRavingsofaLunatic/pseuds/ManicRavingsofaLunatic
Summary: "The longest any of them had stayed dead was Joe when a land mine had torn him mostly to shreds in Vietnam; thirty-two terrifying minutes passing until his body had healed enough for him to shock back to life"An exploration of limb regeneration and the healing process of immortals told through explosions and two men with one soul
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: Immortal Husbands Collection [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1872301
Comments: 40
Kudos: 763





	Thirty-Two Minutes

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all for the amazing response to We go Together - as promised, I have ideas for the sequel (though not a plot) so in the mean time I had two scenes in my head that would not let me go. Special thanks to Nagron12 for her suggestion of exploring the Vietnam memory further!
> 
> I shall be gathering all my Old Guard fics in to a series; so if you wish to keep an eye out for more, please do subscribe to my Immortal Husbands Collection! Enjoy :)

**VIETNAM - 1968**

No one saw it coming.

They had come to Vietnam under the guise of the American army; more for ease of blending in than to join their cause. It was Andy who had suggested they go - her loyalty to Quynh driving her to try and protect her dearest friend's homeland while she couldn't - though none of them could pass as Vietnamese. Hilariously, Nicky had been forbidden to speak while near the Americans as his struggle with the accent meant that he couldn't even pass as Italian-American. Joe and Booker had been teasing him right before it happened.

As they weren't part of an official unit and had no commander to follow, they moved freely between bases and across the jungle. There was such chaos among the military that no one thought to question the appearance of the team; assuming that they were a special combat unit and just grateful for the numbers. The Guard used the army's own intelligence to watch their movements, planning where best to be to minimise the impact of the war.

They couldn't stop it - they had long since learned that lesson - but they could do some good.

They were travelling alone, just the four of them, traversing an idyllic green valley that had Andy smiling fondly at old memories. She had spoken more of Quynh in their two months here than Booker had heard her say in the near two hundred years he had known her. He absorbed the stories, grateful to know something of Quynh other than the desperation and madness that had haunted his dreams.

There had been no contact with any soldiers from either side, and with the route they were taken little known, there was no reason to expect trouble. No reason to suspect that they had stumbled on a minefield. 

Joe was leading, taking point so that even though Andy was as sharp as always, she could indulge in a little nostalgia. Nicky followed not far behind, with Booker taking up the rear guard as they took the piss out of Nicky's accent.

The explosion was loud and sudden in the peaceful silence, and for a moment Booker couldn't figure out what had happened. 

He had dropped to a crouch automatically, gun up and ready even as his ears rung and he struggled to orientate. And then he felt a fine mist dot his face and he realised that Joe was no longer at the front.

Nicky moved first, sprinting a good few feet away from where Joe had been pre-explosion and dropping to his knees on the grass. Andy immediately moved to follow him, Booker moments behind as he took the time to make sure that they were still alone. 

"Yusuf," Andy whispered, horror and pain in her voice, an undercurrent of fear that Booker rarely heard from her. But he completely understood the reaction as he staggered to a stop beside her, his own stomach turning with nausea.

Joe was _very_ dead.

One eye was open and sightless, the other torn through with shrapnel that peppered the left side of head. His arms were shredded and the shirt of his uniform pockmarked by hot metal and blood. His guts were exposed and trailing on the grass. Everything below his waist was _gone._

Belatedly, Booker realised that the wetness on his cheeks was the vaporised remains of Joe's legs. He lost the war with his stomach and threw up his breakfast on the grass.

Nicky was very still. He knelt beside Joe in utter silence, one hand at his neck to cradle his jaw, the other on Joe's chest. His entire body was tensed, his spine a rigid line as his eyes were locked on Joe's face, waiting.

Booker looked to Andy, his brow furrowing in confusion when he saw that she had not moved any closer to Joe. He knew from experience that Andy liked to make sure that they were coming back - he had gasped awake many a time to find her eyes locked on his, the briefest flicker of relief before she scolded him for taking too long. She did the same to Nicky too, the few times that he had died when Joe wasn't immediately there for whatever reason. But with Joe she was holding back, her gaze flicking between between him and Nicky, an odd expression on her face.

Nicky hadn't said a word - Joe would have been cajoling Nicky back to life in their odd mix of of ancient Italian and Arabic by now - but Nicky was frozen.

Booker thought it odd, a strange reaction for Nicky who was always so warm and kind. He had never seen him behave this way before. But then again, he had never seen Joe be the one hurt before. Or at least, not the only one of them stone cold dead while they all waited for him to come back. 

Minutes ticked past, and nothing changed. And Booker realised that this time, Joe might not come back.

Andy seemed to realise this too as she drew back and stumbled to her feet. She checked their surroundings were still clear with the efficiency of a seasoned warrior and came to stand by Booker's side.

"We have to disarm him."

Booker blinked, bewildered by the sudden instruction. "Nicky?"

"It's been too long," Andy nodded, tears in her grief stricken eyes that she furiously blinked away. "Once he realises that-- he'll try to follow him."

Andy gripped Booker's arm tightly, forcing him to look at her. "Do not touch Joe."

Booker then identified the odd expression on Andy's face, unrecognisable due to its rareness. _Fear._ But what confused Booker was that in that moment he couldn't tell if it was fear _for_ Nicky, or fear _of_ him.

Andy crouched by Nicky's knee, her back to Joe as she slowly reached forward to unclip the gun from his vest. Booker watched, one eye on Andy as she cautiously telegraphed her movements and the rest of his attention on their surroundings, hating how exposed they were in the middle of the open valley. Andy divested Nicky of the hand gun at his hip and tactical knife in his boot, and still he didn't move. Nicky didn't even blink, completely oblivious to anything that wasn't Joe beneath his hands.

It had to have been close to half an hour by now since the explosion, and still Joe did not wake. Perhaps it was his time, perhaps there were indeed limits on just what they could come back from. Losing half of yourself to a landmine an injury too grievous.

Booker felt a pain in chest that he didn't think he would have to feel again. The grief of losing his family, his wife and sons, to time and illness had never faded. Always a raw wound in his heart. He had never imagined that it would bleed anew, part of him believing that immortal really did mean forever, despite the stories of Lykon and Quynh. He didn't think that he had allowed himself to get so attached to the Guard that it would hurt so much, if not equally, to losing his first family.

But Joe was gone. Nicky was lost. Andy was scared.

And grief was an old friend of Booker's.

There was movement in the distance - too far determine whether it was a threat - but Booker knew they needed to move. They had waited too long already, they were too exposed, and _dammit_ they needed to deal with this somewhere safe. 

Andy was keeping an eye on Nicky, so Booker figured she would need to be the one to get him moving. As such he moved to Joe, knowing that there was no way they could leave him behind, and reached forward to pick him up under the shoulders "We need to--"

"No _don't--"_

The knife grazed Booker's skin, his throat not slit open only by the grace of Andy's reflexes as she caught Nicky's wrist. Booker didn't even know where Nicky had gotten the knife from until he recognised the hilt and realised that Nicky had stolen it from Booker's own vest in the split second that he had reached for Joe. 

For a moment they all held still. Andy's knuckles were white where she was gripping so tightly to Nicky; his arm tensed where he was still trying to slash Booker's throat. Nicky's eyes were blank, the hand not trying to kill Booker resting lightly at Joe's neck, waiting to feel for a pulse. Booker realised that Nicky couldn't see him, didn't recognise him at all, he simply saw Booker as a threat and was acting accordingly. 

_Do not touch Joe_ Andy had said. Good advice.

Booker raised his hands, tried to back away, but the damage was already done. Realising that Andy was holding him back, Nicky turned on her, driving an elbow hard into her stomach. She grunted and yanked him in to a hold to restrict him, but that pulled Nicky's hand away from Joe's neck and Nicky went _wild._

Booker tried to help, the pair of them trying to pin Nicky down, but he bucked and writhed in their grip and was not afraid to play dirty. He stabbed Booker twice in the shoulder and snapped Andy's shin with a brutal kick before Andy managed to break Nicky's wrist and force the knife from his grip. Booker kicked it away as Andy pinned Nicky down on his back, hissing at him in Italian to _calm the fuck down Nicolo!_

It was then, thirty-two minutes following the land mine's explosion, that Joe finally drew breath.

Andy let Nicky go and he was back at Joe's side as if he had never left, hands settling back against the pulse at Joe's neck and the shuddering rise of his chest.

His eye had healed, blinking blearily around them, the torn skin of his arms gradually following suit leaving only dried blood behind. His lower half was still missing.

Joe stared up at Nicky, wrapping one arm around his waist as Nicky leant down to press their foreheads together. Joe whispered something, the tension lightening ever so slightly in Nicky's shoulders, before the crack of Joe's spine realigning echoed across the valley followed by a chilling cry of pain.

Nicky reached for the med kit at his back that he usually only had when they were in active warzones - not for them but to help the civilians they were there to protect - scrabbling for the morphine to ease Joe's pain. Joe's eyelids fluttered as the drugs worked their magic, though there was no way that they could completely dull the agony of being torn in half.

 _Would it-- was it growing back?_ Booker wondered, the full weight of the fact that Joe was alive and missing his lower half freezing him in his tracks. He had lost part of his arm once, lost quite a few fingers while playing with explosives, and they had grown back but _this..._

"Get the litter together, we need to get somewhere secure," Andy ordered, and Booker was just grateful for the instruction. He got the litter from his own pack, laying it down beside Joe opposite to where Nicky was kneeling. Joe was swimming at the edge of consciousness, but he attempted a smile at Booker through gritted teeth, pupils blown wide from the high. 

Andy was talking to Nicky in Italian, laying out the plan for them to move to a better location. Nicky nodded in agreement, before turning his attention to Booker. He frowned in confusion a moment, his eyes catching on the blood at Booker's throat as if he had completely forgotten that he was the one who had tried to kill him. With a jolt Booker realised that he actually _had_ forgotten, or more than likely simply wasn't aware of his actions in the first place.

Booker waited for Nicky to gesture his assent for him to touch Joe, carefully sliding his hands under Joe's shoulders as Nicky lifted him at his waist, trying not to think about how light Joe was to move with half of his body missing. They managed to transfer Joe to the litter with only a small grunt of pain, though Nicky looked stricken for causing it. Silently, Booker took the front of the stretcher, allowing Nicky to be able to keep an eye on Joe as they moved.

Andy led the way, alert and gun ready as she took them out of the valley and into the jungle. She moved with a destination in mind, and Booker wouldn't be surprised if she had a safehouse buried in the Vietnamese wilds. They had places all over; Booker collected his small houses and apartments across Europe, Joe and Nicky had their villas, and Andy... well Andy liked her ghost towns and abandoned mines. Booker half suspected that Andy wouldn't tell them how old she was because she was actually a cavewoman. How else could she always have some dark hole for them to crawl in to, no matter what part of the world they found themselves in?

The jungle was hard to navigate, the darkness caused by the thick canopy leading Booker to trip more than once, each time Nicky's face with a knife to his throat flashing across his mind's eye. For the first time since they had met, he actually felt nervous having Nicky at his back, still struggling to reconcile the kind man he knew with the crazed attacker he had just met.

The morphine was clearly starting to wear off as Joe was groaning with every other step they took, breath hitching with each jolt of movement. Booker could feel Nicky growing more and more tense behind him, and Booker prayed that Andy brought them to a stop soon.

Ten minutes later, as Joe was trying his best to suppress whimpers of pain, Andy finally held up a fist. Booker and Nicky paused as Andy disappeared ahead, clearing the area before coming back and waving them on.

It was a cave.

It wasn't very big; he had to bend over to avoid braining himself on the ceiling, and it was only about eight feet deep, but it would keep them out of sight and provided cover and that was all Booker really cared about right then. Carefully he lowered the stretcher and backed off, joining Andy at the mouth of the cave where she was keeping watch. Behind him, Nicky had given Joe another shot of morphine before arranging them so that Joe's head was resting in his lap.

Booker turned to Andy. "Don't touch Joe, eh?"

Andy sighed heavily. "Sorry, I should have warned you. It's been so long since... I had almost forgotten what he was like."

"He doesn't even remember."

"No," Andy shook her head, watching Nicky where he was running his hand through Joe's curls soothingly. "He never does. One time, we were on a ship in the Caribbean that was being attacked by pirates. Joe was hit by a canon blast to the chest, almost unrecognisable with the damage. Nicky slaughtered everyone on both ships, including Quynh and I when we tried to stop him. Only Joe waking up could get through to him."

Booker closed his eyes, picturing the carnage. "If you had told me that story just two hours ago, I would have laughed at you. I have seen him fight, but never like that."

"There is a reason that Joe is rarely the one to get hurt, Nicky makes sure of it," Andy explained. "He is a good man, and he wants to do good. But he doesn't like what he becomes without Joe, so if there is ever a choice he will make sure that he is the one that falls."

"Damn," Booker muttered. "It's always the quiet ones."

Andy huffed a small laugh. "Indeed. Tread carefully. Yusuf may be fire but Nicolo is ice, and he can burn you just as surely."

It sounded like a quote, and judging by the small smile on Andy's face, Booker imagined that those were Quynh's words, spoken many centuries ago. In the cave, Joe had awoken, Nicky curling over him so that he blocked any view Joe may try to get of his mangled body. A thin layer of skin had formed over the open tear of his torso, protecting his previously exposed guts as the outline of bones pushed forward.

"Will Joe, uh, re-grow?" Booker asked awkwardly, both fascinated and nauseated by the sight.

"Yes, I think so," Andy nodded. "Just like re-growing a limb."

Booker raised an eyebrow. "That's a little more than a limb."

Andy conceded the point with a tilt of her head, her eyes softening in sympathy as looked over at Joe. "It will take a while, and will be excruciating. Let us hope that there is enough morphine to see him through."

With a quick check of her weapon, Andy took first watch, wandering a short distance from the cave where she would have a good vantage point to see anyone approaching. Booker watched her go, before turning and and finding a spot to settle inside. The cave wasn't very wide, so even with his back to the opposite wall, Booker found his knees barely a a foot away from Nicky's where he was sat cradled with Joe.

Joe mumbled in broken Arabic and Italian as he shifted between being high out of his mind and delirious from the pain, but Nicky remained completely silent. He merely nodded at the slurred words as he carefully petted Joe's hair, his other hand running soothingly up and down Joe's arm. 

Two dull cracks sounded in quick succession, prompting a grunt of pain deep from Joe's throat. Booker couldn't help but watch in curiosity as bones began to form, Joe's pelvis starting to take shape. Initially the skin was the wrong colour, too pale for Joe (perhaps pigment came later?) thin and near translucent where it was pulled across the bone. Slowly muscle and flesh began to expand, soft organs spreading into the newly formed cavity of his hips. Abruptly, as the skin darkened and one femur started to push outwards, Booker realised that Joe would soon be growing his dick back, which was something he definitely did not need to see.

Digging in to his pack, Booker found his spare uniform - a pair of pants and the jacket he had chosen not to wear in the jungle heat. 

Nicky blinked at him, confused.

"I am about to see something that I'm pretty sure is for your eyes only," Booker gestured with a smirk, and Nicky glanced down to where Joe was currently imitating a Ken doll. He chuffed - not quite a laugh but Booker would take it - then nodded. Carefully, Booker laid the jacket so the collar was at Joe's waist, the hem stopping just where his knees would eventually be. Booker folded up the pants and left them next to Joe's hip. "For when his legs grow back."

Nicky offered a small smile of thanks, before his attention was drawn back to Joe who was groaning in pain again, shifting his newly formed hips in discomfort. The two small bottles of morphine Nicky had in his kit were laid next to Joe's head, and Nicky kept looking between them and Joe's covered waist furtively.

"There's not enough, is there?" Booker realised. Nicky met his gaze, and Booker saw the truth of his words reflected in the fear and regret he found in Nicky's eyes. "Shit."

There wasn't anything they could do. They were in the middle of a jungle in a war torn country. Booker had a radio that he was mainly using to eavesdrop on the Americans, but it wasn't like they could call for help anyway. There was no way to explain a man re-growing his entire lower half that was blown off thanks to a land mine. Nicky was spacing out the doses, giving Joe just enough to take the edge off for as long as he could, but sooner rather than later he wouldn't be able to offer even that small comfort.

At nightfall a few hours later, as Joe's knees started to poke out from beneath the jacket, Andy came back from watch. Booker was grateful for her timing, watching Nicky give Joe the final dose just as he was about to leave the cave. At the entrance he paused, pulling his flask from his jacket. It was maybe half-full, but the whiskey was strong (had to be with his tolerance) and it was as close to a pain reliever that he had. He turned and offered the flask to Nicky. He looked surprised, but smile at Booker in appreciation.

With a nod, Booker left the cave and took up his post for watch.

Through the night cries and screams of agony, as muffled as Nicky and Andy could make them, echoed mournfully through the jungle. It was a giant beacon to anyone who might be in their vicinity, but thankfully, somehow, no attack came.

With dawn light, Booker left his position and made his way back, greeted by the sight of Joe's toes finishing their formation. Andy and Nicky looked grey and tired as Joe finally lapsed into true unconsciousness, his body freed from the burden of re-growing.

"We'll need to move," Andy said after a while. "Joe will be down for a while and we don't have the supplies here. We need to get back to civilisation."

Booker nodded in agreement and between them they broke camp; packing up the few things they had used as Nicky got Joe into the spare pants and on the stretcher. In ten minutes they were moving, following Andy once again as she carved them a path through the jungle.

It took several days before they reached the American camp at Da Nang air base, and Joe remained unconscious for most of it. Nicky took care of him, getting Joe to eat the few moments he was awake, encouraging water down his throat when he wasn't. Cleaning him up and making sure that Joe wasn't alone for a moment. Booker is fairly sure that Nicky never slept or ate himself, just kept silently moving.

When they made it to the outskirts of the base, Joe was starting to come round so they ditched the stretcher to avoid questions. Andy got them through the check point and found them an empty tent, guiding them inside with a glance around to make sure that no attention had been drawn to them.

They got Joe settled on a cot, exhausted still but awake enough to hold himself up and smile at them. "Well, that was fun. Let's not do it again."

Booker huffed a laugh, Andy rolled her eyes and Nicky collapsed.

It was inevitable really with the way that he had been pushing himself, and Andy had clearly been waiting for it if the way that she readily caught him was anything to go by, but Joe was understandably freaked out.

"He's okay," Andy reassured him. "Just tired."

 _And dehydrated. And half-starved,_ Booker tacked on silently, but Joe didn't look like he could hear that just then. Instead Booker helped Andy lug Nicky over the cot Joe was sitting on, getting them settled side-by-side. With Nicky in his arms, it didn't take long for Joe to slip back into sleep, leaving Andy shaking her head at them.

"Hopeless, the pair of them." 

Booker snorted in agreement, before taking up position at the flap of the tent. After everything they had been through, the last thing they needed was some homophobe catching Joe and Nicky together and deciding to take offence. 

Booker glanced over at Andy, who was watching them sleep with a mix of longing, sadness and relief. 

"This one is going to scar, isn't it?" 

Andy closed her eyes. "Thirty-two minutes. That's not easy to forget."

**Author's Note:**

> I have a parallel scene in my head with a role reversal that I am hoping to get written this week; but as this part of the story stands alone in its own right I am marking it complete for now 
> 
> Super thanks again to Nagron12 for the prompt - if there are any other scenes people want to see, let me know and I shall see what I can do. Sequel to We Go Together in the works - ideas of theories welcome!


End file.
